Paneriai

It is hard to believe that this quiet forest path was once one of the most important arterial roads in Vilnius – in Paneriai, it branched off in the directions of Kaunas, Trakai, Trakų Vokė, and Grodno. In 1812, Napoleon and his Grande Armée marched to Russia along this very road; at the end of the same year, the remnants of the army fled the icy hills of Paneriai, chased by Cossacks, and lost their weapons and even their treasury. The news of the French treasure lost in Paneriai has long tempted treasure hunters. There is no doubt that other kings, dukes, and tsars have followed this route. Nevertheless, the Paneriai stretch was not characterised by convenience. First of all, in order to reach the main fork, it was necessary to overcome some steep hills. The rugged and dark terrain was particularly favoured by robbers, most notoriously Pekarskis, who formed a gang of 200 outlaws in the early 19th century. Secondly, today’s forest road is wider than its predecessor, so in those days travellers had to shout and jostle (sometimes even to shoot in the air) to reach an agreement on who would go first, as it was impossible to pass when two carts met. Between the wars, the road was repaired and widened, trees were planted, and protective fences installed. Around 1960, a new straight asphalted road was built from Žemieji Paneriai, and the old winding section became quieter and less visible. Today, it is used by pilgrims from Vilnius to reach Trakai, following the Way of St. Jacob marked by the yellow shell symbol.

It is known that the Jesuits erected a pillar with a small statue of the Lord’s Passion at the most important crossroads in the countryside in 1597 as a way station for the popular processions between Vilnius and Trakai. It was also an important point for travellers to ask for God’s grace or to thank him for successfully crossing the dangerous Paneriai hills. Over time, the way-side shrine was replaced by a wooden chapel, which later became a stone chapel. The dates of the alterations are vague and contradictory in various sources, but at the beginning of the 20th century, the present appearance of the chapel was probably finally established when the brick tower of late Baroque features was added. During the Soviet era, the chapel was converted into a warehouse for books, and is now also only open on rare occasions, with no regular services.

The site was the scene of one of the most important battles of the 1830-1831 Uprising, and in 2001 a granite monument in the shape of a cross was erected to commemorate the battles. On 19 June 1831, the rebels, led by A. Gelgaudas, moving from Rykantai, attempted to take Vilnius, but were blocked by a powerful Tsarist force at Paneriai Crossroads. After four hours of battle, the rebels were repulsed and A. Gelgaudas ordered a retreat when they unsuccessfully tried to break through the Neris valley to the enemy rear. The rebels lost about 1,200 men (about 600 were killed and as many captured), while the Russian army lost 364. After the defeat at the Battle of Vilnius, the rebellion began to die down rapidly. The suppressors of the uprising were buried in Paneriai Cemetery, but today only the grave of the tsarist officer, J. Svechin, is visible; it is marked by a black granite cube (in the middle of the cemetery). The rebels were buried at the foot of the hill, but the exact location is not pinpointed, and the way-side shrine that once stood there was demolished in around 1950.

From 1954, an industrial zone was built on the picturesque banks of the Neris River, on the site of the former village of Jankiškės, where two large factories were erected. The first was the Reinforced Concrete Structures Plant No. 3, built in 1955, which produced parts for the TV tower, Lazdynai Hospital, The ‘Lietuva’ Hotel (now the ‘Radisson Blu Hotel Lietuva’), the Seimas Palace, large apartment blocks, etc. The factory is still in operation today, and you will recognise its site from the tall pink tower marked ‘GKG-3’. The second industrial complex is Vilnius Meat Factory, built in 1958. In the Soviet era, the meat factory was one of the most desirable places to work, because fresh cuts and meat products were a scarce commodity valued by everyone – rather like customised machines or microchips might be lusted after today. It is not for nothing that the saying went that whoever worked in a meat factory did not have to buy meat. In 2003-2004, the company was judged to be loss-making and the decision was made to close it down. Now, the vast territory is used in many different ways – some of the buildings are rented out by companies, some are lofts, while others are abandoned, and there are even a few old residential buildings. The ‘GKG-3’ construction company continues to operate successfully.

Šaltupio Street, which borders the territory of the factory complex, and Sausupio Street, which ‘flows’ into Savanorių Avenue, are reminders of the extinct tributaries of the River Neris, which are visible on pre-war maps and which were channelled during the development of the industrial zone in the post-war period.

The settlement of Žemieji Paneriai was supposed to become an agrarian settlement immediately after the war, but it was soon noticed that the sandy soil was slow to bring great yields. Later attempts to establish a livestock farm there also came to nothing. Eventually, in the 1950s, the farm was abandoned. In the 1960s, the industrialisation of Jankiškės and what is now Savanorių Avenue led to huge factories springing up like mushrooms after the rain. To accommodate their workers, the idea was conceived to establish Žemieji Paneriai, a settlement remote from the centre but close to the industrial area. For a long time, the ups and downs of the district were almost directly correlated with the ebb and flow of factory life. Today, the area is popular with Vilnius residents who appreciate the possibility of a quick getaway to the countryside.

On 15 January 1859, for the first time in the Russian Empire, the construction of a railway tunnel began. Was such a tunnel really necessary to cross the hills around Vilnius? The popular version is that the tunnel was built to please the Tsar, who was particularly fond of travelling through the mountain tunnels of Western Europe. French and German miners were invited to lead the work in Paneriai, but the bulk of the manual labour was done by the inhabitants of the Vilnius area. The watery loose sand immediately caused difficulties, and the project had to be redesigned to thicken the vaults. On 15 September 1860, construction was completed, but the official opening was postponed until 3 October, the day when Emperor Alexander II himself laid the last symbolic brick. The Paneriai Tunnel immediately became a strategic object, so it was properly protected and a team of guards known as stražniki was formed. The tunnel was badly damaged during the Second World War, and repair work managed to save it for a short period of time. However, in the middle of the 1950s, it was declared to be in a state of emergency and was subsequently closed; a bypass was constructed instead. Now both ends of the tunnel are bricked up to protect extremely rare species of hibernating bats. Paneriai Tunnel is 6.4 m in height, 8 m wide, and 427 m in length. Paneriai Tunnel’s ‘brother’ in Kaunas was built a little later and is longer (1285 m), but it has withstood serious reconstructions and continues to be functional until now.

The small, single-storey dwelling house was built at the end of the 19th century for railway workers. The unrenovated parts of the building show the surviving carved wooden decorations. Trains would originally have stopped in Paneriai on this site next to the house; it was only later, as the settlement expanded, that people would have disembarked further to the west.

Before the tragic events of the war, Aukštieji Paneriai was created as an idyllic settlement for those who wished to escape the tiring city noise. Following the concept of the city-garden of the late 19th century that was gaining popularity in Western Europe, which offered people the advantages of living in the city and the countryside at the same time. In 1932, a new residential development  was established near Vilnius, in what is now Aukštieji Paneriai. It was given the name ‘Jagiellonów’ (Jogailačiai). The land was divided into plots forming an oval-shaped settlement, and the construction of fine wooden houses for railwaymen, postal workers, military officers, pensioners, and others began. Jogailačiai had a small railway station and the strategic Vilnius-Grodno highway was nearby; it boasted a post office, telephone exchange, concrete factory, and a chapel. In the future, it was planned to establish a balneological spa, ski slopes, a bathing area near Vokė, and all necessary public buildings. The importance of sport and wellness was emphasised in the development of Jogailačiai. Before the war, about 500-600 people were able to settle here, and only 90 hectares of the planned 535 hectares were built on. The turmoil of the war and the post-war period completely changed the garden town: Aukštieji Paneriai became a large railway junction with a freight station and factories springing up in the vicinity, and incongruous apartment blocks for workers appeared. Although the garden town is officially long gone, the regular street layout and the fine houses that remain in places are reminders of the summer resort that once existed here – take a walk and you might soak up some of the echoes of that spirit.

This is one of the most important memorials to the tragic events of the Second World War in Lithuania. During the first occupation, the Soviets started to build liquid fuel storage facilities, but the complex had not been completed before the Nazis arrived. On 24 June 1941, Nazi German troops entered Vilnius, and the arrest of the Jews of Vilnius began soon after. In July, mass shootings began, and the Paneriai area was chosen for the executions, which was remote, but logistically convenient – the victims’ bodies could be put on wagons, transported by highway, or simply carried on foot from the city centre. The pits dug by the Soviets for fuel were suitable for the killings and burials. In the autumn of 1943, as the Gestapo began to prepare to eradicate the traces of the crimes, a new pit was dug – it was 8 metres deep, covered with a roof, and equipped with bunks and a kitchen. A brigade consisting of 80 Jews and Soviet prisoners of war was assembled and given the task of digging up the corpses and burning them. Thirteen members of the brigade managed to escape through a 30 metre-long tunnel that they had dug themselves. The last massacre in Paneriai took place on 2 and 3 July 1944, during the destruction of the ‘Kailis’ factory and the HKP (Heereskraftfahrpark military machinery) labour camps. The indictment drawn up by the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg stated that at least 100,000 people were killed in Paneriai, 70,000 of whom were Jews, the others being members of the Polish Resistance, Communists, Soviet prisoners of war, soldiers of the Lithuanian Territorial Defence Force, members of the Roma community, etc. More recent analysis suggests that the real figures may be twice as low, but of course this does not diminish the scale of the tragedy.

In 1985, some artists, dissatisfied with the increasingly harsh conditions of the Smiltynė symposiums, decided to create their own separate plein-air workshop and hold it in Aukštieji Paneriai with the materials provided by the then Vilnius large-plane block parts factory that was situated nearby. The aim was not only to diversify the gloomy industrial landscape of the surroundings, but also to break out of the framework of socialist realism. The symposium ‘Sculpture in an Industrial Landscape’ was held on the initiative of the sculptor M. Navakas and architect V. Jakubauskas. Six sculptures created in 1985-1986 can be seen here (in order from west to east): ‘Mėnesiena’ by N. Nasvytis, K. Jaroševaitė’s ‘Gulinti’ (the sculpture has unfortunately lost its head), ‘Rytas’ by K. Musteikis, M. Navakas’ ‘Užtvara’, ‘Rantytas’ by V. Urbanavičius, and ‘Piliakalnis’ by M. Šnipas.